Critique de CHOICE

As lawyer, professor, and feminist theorist, Colker analyzes legal reasonings on reproductive rights. She considers the benefits of an equality based argument for reproductive choice over privacy based reasonings, which favor middle-class white women. The concept of "the pregnant man" is more than a counterfactual thought experiment; rather, it is a guideline for evaluating proceedings concerning men's reproductive choices. Assumptions about sexuality, pregnancy, and "woman" are mediated by race and class, and in general favor male authority. Thus the law disempowers poor women, most often women of color. Any interference in reproductive rights (e.g., waiting periods) becomes a matter of discrimination. Perhaps weakest in its analysis of the interplay of biology and culture, this work contains the outlines of a general theory of race, class, and gender in the legal system, but the narrative style leaves the theoretical possibilities obscure. For upper-division undergraduates and above; the descriptions of cases and decisions are especially useful. J. L. Croissant Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute